WeeOnes

September 15, 2008

These birthday socks are a tiny bit overdue for an August 24th birthday. I actually wanted to have them done in time to begin my project for the Knitting Olympics, but it simply did not happen. Instead, I continued to knit these through the Olympics, through my mother-in-law's birthday, and finally managed to finish them up this weekend.

I will put them in the mail tomorrow and they will very soon be warming Nancy's toes... just in time for the fall season in Colorado! I'm glad she has tiny size 6 feet because the calf shaping used up quite a lot of yarn. I have some left for darning (if the need arises), but that's about it.

These were another pleasurable knit, but I think it's time to set socks
aside for a bit and focus on other projects. Specifically, I have some
knitting to complete before certain babies back in Georgia make it down their
respective birth canals.

September 09, 2008

You would think that living in the Hawaiian Islands would mean long walks on white sandy beaches beneath swaying coconut palms. That's true on the older islands, but here on the Big Island, which is the youngest of the 8 main islands in the Hawaiian chain, there a very few white sandy beaches to walk on. Instead, when hot flowing lava reaches the sea, it explodes violently into billions of miniscule pieces of black rock that will ultimately form beaches of black sand. Because these beaches are supplied by active lava flows, when the eruption stops, the black sand will begin to be replaced by more
familiar, lighter colored sand as shells from corals and other marine animals begin to break down to form the fine white sand that Hawaii is famous for. All of this means that beaches of black sand are special and short-lived, at least geologically speaking.

Punalu'u is on the south side of the island at the base of Mauna Loa Volcano. It's a sacred place, and still has ancient Hawaiian ritual areas and petroglyphs carved into rock. But this time I was there to see the sea turtles. They feast on seaweed that grows in the shallow bay, and regularly haul themselves onto the beach to bask in the Hawaiian sun.

Punalu'u is home to two different types of endangered sea turtles. Hawksbill Turtles, and Green Sea Turtles. In Hawaiian, they're called "honu ea" and "honu". Both species nest here, which means that late at night they come onto the beach to dig a nest and lay their eggs. The mother turtle will bury her eggs and return to the sea, leaving them to incubate and develop on their own. About two months later, hatchlings not much bigger than a golf ball will dig themselves out and have to swim against all odds into the surf.

I used the opportunity to take photos of my green sea turtle stitch markers against the black sand. These guys aren't nearly as ancient and are not at all endangered, but are cute just the same.

Now that I have fulfilled a life long dream of seeing real sea turtles sunbathing I can move onto my next sea turtle related dream. Next up? Swimming with them.

August 31, 2008

It seems silly to pay money for fruit when you live on a tropical island. Almost everywhere you look there are bananas and ripe avocados beckoning. Saturday we drove up the Hamakua coast, which is a picturesque stretch of coastline that winds through former sugar plantations, waterfalls, and miles of tropical fruit trees. Mangoes fill the gutters out here when they're in season, and the roadside is dotted with banana trees, jackfruit, lychees, avocados, and many others.

First up were the pineapple guava - our favorite guava. They're bright yellow when ripe, and really do taste like sweet pineapples with really hard seeds. Each one is about the size of a golf ball. They're easy to harvest on the sides of the road

Next we found an avocado tree that was loaded with fruit (aptly called "butter pears" here). Jim scampered up the tree to retrieve and toss them down to me one by one ... until we had a shiny pile of 21 fresh avocados.

The final prize was a comb of bananas. Though plentiful here on the Big Island, they can be difficult to get. The trees are tall, sometimes 20 feet, but they're actually large herbs (no wood in there), so you can't climb them. Each banana tree fruits one time before falling over and resprouting, so the best way to retrieve the fruits is to cut down the entire tree with a machete. It can also be hard to find bananas that are ripe enough to pick. As soon as they're big enough, people will get them, so there's an element of luck and persistence in finding good bananas.

We found this bunch of bananas growing in the side of a cliff. They look perfect, but it was far too dangerous to reach them. The long pointy thing hanging off the bunch of bananas is the flower. We finally found an accessible grove, and Jim went to work with the machete.

He later emerged with his kill:

The day was a sucess. We will be eating avocados, bananas, and then banana bread for quite some time.

August 27, 2008

I present to you another sweet, lacy pair of socks knitted with Cherry Tree Hill Supersock yarn. This time, unlike with my Unst socks, the yarn was painted with more than one color. It's funny - I find myself very drawn to multi-colored hand-painted yarns (and have a good deal of them in my stash). But when it comes right down to it, I prefer the finished product of a good solid-colored yarn. I feel it's a lot more versatile, and since I am all about lace and cables, solids suit me just fine.

That is not to say that I don't love these - I do. The sheen and softness have me excited to wear them, and this pattern does very well with jewel tones. The colors make it a little more pleasing to the eye, but do not detract from the delicate lace pattern. They are another welcomed addition to my sock collection, especially in chilly Volcano. The temperature here is just right for sitting down with a warm cup of coffee while wearing my cozy hand-knitted socks. I have to wait until Ohia gets a a bit beyond his teething stage to make that a reality, though. It seems that socks sooth his aching gums. Don't worry... the hand-knitted socks are locked up tightly for the time being.

I knitted these socks from my most used edition of Interweave Knits. Wee'un likes this summer 2005 edition as well. He loves to roll and scratch around when he is happy... and it appears that this pattern tickled his fancy. He was just so cute that I didn't have the heart to stop him. His playfulness made it a little difficult to read the pattern , but I smile every time I look at this page with all of its wrinkles and tears.

August 25, 2008

There is a tree found only in Hawaii called Ohia (sounds like the word "oh" followed by "he" and"uh"). It's scientific name is Metrosideros polymorpha. The "polymorpha" part is a testament to the fact this this tree can grow almost anywhere and adapt to almost anything. It's the first plant to grow on barren lava flows, and is found from the ocean up all the way up to tree line on the big Hawaiian volcanos. They have shaggy gray bark and silvery green leaves with bright red blossoms called "lehua". It grows in rain forests and in dry forests. Sometimes it looks like a stunted bush, and other times it's a tall canopy tree that looks more like a drawing from Dr. Seuss than an actual living plant. Ohia trees are persistent and beautiful features of the Hawaiian landscape.

The newest member of our family is a different kind of Ohia. Although grey and persistent, he has four legs, is furry, and grows very quickly. Jim found him at a bedraggled 3.6 pounds, fighting for his life in the mountains above Laupahoehoe, which is an old sugar town on the windward slope of Mauna Kea. In little more than a month's time, he went from this:

To this:

To this:

We started clicker-training with him last week, and are amazed how fast he picks things up. First it was paying attention and learning to touch our hands with his nose. Next he'll be taking Wee'un for walks, knitting and making his own stitch markers.

August 16, 2008

When I moved out on my own for the first time, my mother offered me her sleeper sofa. Professional movers put the couch inside her house, but we would be moving it out ourselves. It was on the third floor of the house, and the narrow staircases wound around, but we had confidence in ourselves. That confidence was misplaced.

We took the legs off the couch and began moving it down the stairwell with its underside facing the wall. The stairs were so narrow that the couch got stuck between the wall and railing. When trying to free the couch we loosened the entire banister. The metal on the underside of the couch left black streaks down the wall. Then the couch rammed into a mirror at the bottom of one of the staircases. The mirror broke. A sconce was pulled off the wall. We were pretty irritated when the couch finally made it out of the house, but surely everything would go smoothly from here. We hoisted the couch onto the top of the station wagon and began the hour drive north to Hanover, NH. It began to rain and I realized we should have put a tarp over the couch. At least it wasn't raining too hard. When we made it to our destination, an old New England house, we assessed the situation. I walked up the the second floor of the house where I would be living and realized with horror that there was no way to get the couch inside. The doorway was narrow, and there was a wall directly behind that door. Without ripping out the wall, the couch was not entering the apartment.

There was no way we were putting the couch back up on the third floor of my mother's house. I promptly decided to get rid of it at the local consignment shop. The shop owner said she would happily take furniture that was in good condition. Luckily, the couch was upside-down on the station wagon, so the little skirt was obscuring all the damage caused by my cat. We were so desperate to get rid of it that we assured the lady it was in fine condition. The first step was to re-attach the wooden legs... but wait a minute... where was the screw for the fourth leg? I couldn't find it anywhere. In a moment of desperation we hurriedly brought the couch into the shop and just tucked the fourth leg underneath to prop up the couch. Then we ran.

Then there was the time that I went with my parents to purchase a new chair for their living room. They had decided to treat themselves and buy a really nice, sturdy, and expensive arm chair. We put it into the back of our pick-up truck and began driving home. Suddenly we felt a lurch. When we had accelerated, the new chair had become airborne and had launched out of the truck. It was now somersaulting down the highway like a tumbleweed. We pulled over and retrieved the now scuffed chair and put it back in the pick-up and continued driving... a little more slowly this time.

This time, against all odds, we successfully moved into our new, beautiful house and couldn't be happier. This was by far the longest move I have ever been through. We left our apartment in Athens, GA at the end of April and moved into our new house in Volcano, HI on August 1st. The drive across the country was something I have always wanted to do. We spent time with loved ones and saw amazing parts of the country. The move was not without its issues (more on that later), but it is finished and I can finally say that we are home!

July 30, 2008

I am slowly making progress on the latest pair of socks. The pattern is Conwy from Knitting on the Road by Nancy Bush. True to its name, the book has accompanied me on many a road trip. This is because the spiral binding is very conducive to knitting while traveling. Why every pattern book does not have a spiral binding, I will never know.

This is the third pattern I've knitted from this book and, as usual - I am enjoying it. The Conwy socks are unique because they have calf shaping. I'm using Mountain Colors Bearfoot sock yarn, which makes the most comfortable pair of socks ever. The combination of a calf-hugging pattern using merino and mohair yarn should make for socks so warm and comfortable that the recipient will never want to take them off. The lucky recipient is my wonderful mother-in-law, Nancy. She will be receiving them for her birthday on August 24. The picture shows my progress on sock #1, so I still have a lot to do. I signed up for the Ravelympics with a different pattern, so I have to complete these socks by August 8th when the Ravelympics begin.

In case you don't know about the Ravelympics, here's the deal. It's a knitting competition
that begins during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. You need to complete your project by the time the flame is extinguished at the end of the games. That means weaving in ends and blocking, all of it has to be done by the time the light goes out. There are lots of teams and events for the Ravelympics this year. I joined Team Red Sox Nation and will be competing in the baby dressage event.

This is the yarn for my project. It is RYC Cashsoft 4-ply in Redwood, a wonderful merino and cashmere blend that is machine washable - perfect for a baby gift. I'm not going to divulge the pattern just yet since the mother-to-be just might be reading.

I will be knitting for a couple of babies that are due in the fall. I have picked out patterns that I am really excited about. The Ravelympics should give me that extra little push to get these projects started and completed before the babies make their appearances.

I needed encouragement for Ravelympics 2008. It will be challenging to complete the project on time, so I made these little guys to help keep my eye on the prize.
They're Boston Terriers in various phases of the Ravelympics. One is furiously knitting, the second one has received a gold medal, and the third is proudly wearing his medal while displaying a completed sock. He knitted that sock in 13.2 seconds to take first place this year. The competition was fierce, especially for a dog without thumbs.

I'm donating two of these sets as prizes for the Ravelympics, and have also put them on sale in my Etsy shop in case anyone else needs inspiration from tiny Boston Terriers.

July 27, 2008

Lost animals are drawn to me. First there was Miss Kitty, a little tortoiseshell who showed up at our Athens apartment and decided to call us her own. After a month of listening to her pitiful cries and fattening her up as best we could, she found a nice home with friends. Then came Cotton, the Great Pyrenees. It was not long before I had rescued him from the pound and put him on a plane to my parents' house in New Hampshire. Next up was Robert Tail, a cute little bobtail kitty with tons of personality. You can imagine what happened. I snatched him up and drove him north to my parents' house (again). That was just a couple months ago. Surely the animals would not find us in Hawaii.

Jim called me from work last week with news of our latest orphan. In a distant Hawaiian rain forest near the old sugar town of Laupahoehoe, he had come across a starving puppy that was very close to death.

Jim scooped the puppy into his arms and brought him along for the day. They visited the veterinarian after work and the puppy weighed in at a tiny 3.6 pounds. He could barely lift his head. We decided to nurse him to health. Jim brought him home and we washed him and treated him for the hundreds of fleas visibly running across his little face. He ate, then slept for the next two days.

Puppy is doing much better now. He is fattening up, climbing over everything, and chasing Wee'un. Wee'un is thoroughly enjoying his new friend.

The only problem is that I can't drive him to my parents' house this time and we have not yet found someone willing to adopt him. In the meantime, Puppy is making himself right at home, doing puppish things.

July 25, 2008

No food is better food than whole belly fried clams. Just
ask any New Englander. They're best from ice cream shops, preferably
the independent, shack-by-the-sea variety. Just thinking of
the hot crispy outside and the sweet belly inside makes my mouth
water.

During my time in Georgia, I was never able to find whole belly
clams. When I left New Hampshire and arrived in Athens, I was a
little down. OK, I cried every day. One thing I was extremely sad about
was the absence of clams. Jim sweetly assured me that they must have clams
in Georgia ... and took me to Captain D's, a fast food joint with
something on the menu they called clams and sold for $1.50. I tried to
convince him that this was not what I craved, but he bought them
anyway. They were clam strips - not the same. I cried.

Because I have never found whole belly clams outside New
England, you can
imagine my excitement and surprise when I discovered a fish & chips
shop advertising fried clams here in Hawaii. Jim and I stopped in and
inquired about the presence of bellies. Were they actually the whole
animal, or the off cuts used in pet food and at Captain D's? Yes, they
said. They have bellies. I rephrased the question a few times to be
sure. I was elated, yet suspicious.

Upon
reflection, I reasoned that
it has always seemed puzzling that whole belly clams could not be found
outside the north east. After all, most seafood is not locally caught,
it is shipped from far away. Alaskan King Crab, Maine Lobsters,
Tasmanian Salmon. Why then the lack of
clams? Perhaps because seafood is abundant in Hawaii, and people here
expect surf not turf, I reasoned, clams get shipped in. The more I
thought about it the more excited I became.

Jim came home last night and told me he had bad news. He was going to surprise me and bring home fried clams for dinner.
He stopped at the fish & chips shop and placed his order. The lady
looked at him and asked "Do you realize they're canned?"